Customer Reviews

The Love Hunter

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It has been a while since I've read this book, but it was so good I intend to read it again, even with all the others I have waiting on the shelf. LOVE HUNTER was the first Jon Hassler novel I had the pleasure of reading, and with it I discovered one of my favorite authors. Mr. Hassler has a special way of developing characters so you somehow feel connected to them. In the case of Love Hunter, the reader can sense the anguish felt by Chris as he witnesses his friend Larry's losing battle with MS. Chris also struggles with his growing love for Larry's wife. Together, Chris and Larry attempt to continue an annual tradition which will soon cease to be.

This is an intelligent,literate book that I would highly recommend. The writing is excellent and the story is compelling. Mr. Hassler is one of our best contemporary writers, in my opinion. His characters are so convincing and the dialogue is just as people actually speak. I particularly enjoy his observations on everyday life situations that we all face. This book has everything from laugh-out-loud comedy (Blackie LaVoi and the entire hunting camp fracas) to tragedy, and everything in between. It deals with love, jealously, and selfishness contrasted with selflessness. The characters will in turn infuriate you and then endear themselves, but at all times they are real and believable and human. This is the third novel by Mr. Hassler I have read, and I also recommend Simon's Night and Grand Opening.

Like the other Jon Hassler books I've read, this one had sentences and turns of phrase that were so felicitous, and showed such amazing powers of observation, that I read them over and over. The descriptions of Iowa, Minnesota, and Manitoba brought the landscape into sharp relief, and I felt like I was there at the grody hunting cabin, and wading in the cold water.

The biggest problem for me in this book was the characters. None of them was likeable, except for Rachel. And she spent so much time keeping the others going that I hardly got to see her as her own person. Long sections of this book (especially at the hunting resort) were less than pleasant to read because I didn't like or care about the people I was watching.

I admire this book, but when I go to re-read some Jon Hassler I will turn to Staggerford, which renders the same kind of landscape and small-town life not just in perfect detail, but in loving detail. I believe Staggerford is Hassler's masterpiece, and The Love Hunter didn't quite measure up.

Hassler breathes fresh life into two of literature's weariest clichés: the lovers' triangle and the suffering of mortal illness. Because he handles these subjects with a lightness of touch and firm structural craftsmanship, the result is realistic yet never maudlin, insightful though not preachy. An honest read with delightfully quirky characters.

His, not mine. Despite growing up in the Midwest, majoring in English lit and favoring contemporary authors, I never heard of Jon Hassler until I read his obit earlier this year in the New York Times. The documentation of Hassler's life was so laudatory and the description of his prose so intriguing that I ordered from Amazon.com a paperback copy of his first novel, "Staggerford." I so enjoyed the humor, vivid characters and the realistic dialog and emotional reactions between them that I soon ordered several more of his books. Hassler created very real people who populate his Minnesota communities with conflicts about love, power, faith and doubt, social codes and other aspects of life we all can easily relate to. "Love Hunter" portrays a very complex triangle between two best friends and much-younger woman they both love. One, her husband, wastes away with terminal disease while the other attempts to justify his mercy killing. Duck hunting provides part of the scenery (and if there's a better description of the "sport" I haven't seen it), small-college life in the Midwest consumes the rest. This work, Hassler's second novel, lacks the ironic humor that I loved in "Staggerford" and is so different in tone, pace and environment I am convinced this author's skill was vast. I'm now on a third novel and if they keep getting better will work through the whole catalog with an engagement not felt since I discovered Hemmingway and Steinbeck.

This is one of the worst books I've ever read. It takes forever to get the plot line moving because Hassler seems to have to describe every little thing that isn't necessary. He has an interesting idea for a book but executes it very poorly. Much of the book is just a summary of what happens rather than putting us directly into the scene and letting us see what happens. It's sort of like reading a summary of a book rather than the book itself. It was a real struggle to finish this book.

The story line was atypical, but not necessarily a true characterization of people in the midwest. A truly sad story without much resolution for the the character Chris Mackenzie and his dying friend's wife Larry Quinn. But I was compelled to read to the end and in three sittings.